Hollowware: Egg Cup Design

Earlier in the year I designed and created an egg cup in my Hollowware course.

When it was first made it had the most amazing and unusual purple patina. (Pictures of the egg cup in an earlier post can be seen here.)

Now, a couple of months later it has faded to an aged icy turquoise blue. The high polish on the 'tentacles' has remained a beautiful dark copper colour. The blue patina was achieved by placing the copper with a green patina in a lidded bowl full of wood chips soaked in ammonia. The fumes of the ammonia turn the green patina blue!

And below are some of the designs that were discarded in the designing process. 

I would still like to make them....... maybe one day! 

Here are some websites on how to make different coloured patina's using ingredients generally found at home:

Blue patina 

Blue green patina

Green patina

Shibori Heart Tshirt

I couldn't help but notice the current trend for all things shibori or dip dyed that are popping up everywhere. Inspired by a recent post by Poppytalk (its a great blog to follow too) I decided to give it a go.

Ive been wanting to revamp my studio wardrobe and decided to have some fun with this white tshirt.

After drawing the heart on the tshirt with a pencil, I stitched the outline with double thread.

Pulling the thread tight, I wrapped the remaining string around the material that was in the middle of the heart. This gives the lines in the centre of the heart.

Heart running stitched 

And this is how it turned out using a hot dye ...

To achieve the pattern on the sleeves, I rolled them up, and then wrapped stitched the rolls to secure them in place.

I got so carried away I forgot to take photos of the process, but if you would like to make a similar design here are some links that show some of the steps:

Shibori stitched hearts

Shibori resist stitch technique 

Bombaki shibori (wrapped around a bottle) 

Completed Basket Rings displayed within Ceramics

Basket Rings. Photography: Christina Arsenault

A couple of months ago I shared with you the beginnings of a new series of work: baskets that are woven in metal and attached to rings, and more information on the concept behind these pieces can be found here. 

Pioneer Landscapes. Photography: Christina Arsenault

Initially they were designed to be displayed within the context of larger blocks of clay. (Further information on this concept can be found here). 

Salt of the Earth 1. Photography: Christina Arsenault

Salt of the Earth 2. Photography: Christina Arsenault

Although I also like them displayed without the ceramic pieces and just in the engraved pebbles that support them, as seen in the top image.

Coptic Binding

Something I have wanted to try for quite some time was to make a book using the coptic binding stitch technique. I have wanted to learn this technique since I saw it at the Tasmanian Art Fair in 2010. The Third Door had some beautiful examples of coptic binding and I was entranced by how they lent themselves to draping and that the opened flat which is perfect for a sketch book.

Coptic binding

Coptic binding was used by early Christians in Egypt and examples can be dated back to the 2nd century AD. It is a method of joining sections of parchment, papyrus or paper using chain stitch linking across the spine.

I had some spare time recently so I decided to teach myself the technique. Using some fabric scraps, I created a cover that alluded to what the content of the book will be (this will come at a later stage).

Fabric embroidered cover

 For those who have been following my blog you will recognise Kochira the Cat Kelly (in the style of  Australian artist Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly, the famous Australian bush ranger) who features in my animation, The Drive.

The decorative binding

I really enjoyed making the book, and plan to make a few more when I have some more spare time.

If you would also like to give this a try I found the following sites very helpful:
- Coptic binding directions illustrated by pictures 
- Coptic binding tutorial on Youtube. 11 mins long.

The Travellers - Antique Kitchen Strainers

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

At the beginning of the year I found some delightful antique kitchen strainers and I immediately fell in love with their shape and form. I wanted to incorporate them into my artwork and create something beautiful with them.

Incorporating metal wire (copper, brass and silver plated that has been patina'ed) each antique strainer contains or carries a machine embroidered heart, that is incased in a resin house shape.

They certainly have character and have developed a life of their own. They became the inspiration for some stop motion animation, ending up in my 3 and a half minute animation, The Drive.

Finally I have finished a family of three 'Travellers'. Here they are

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

Antique style Russian Floral Mittens

I don't know about you, but I can't resist buying beautiful yarn. Even when Im not sure that I have a project in mind for it.

I bought this beautiful yarn (Filatura Di Crosa 127 Print) many moons ago whilst I was living in London, UK. I was romanced by the colour (fuscia pink) that was teamed with navy blue, mustard yellow, charcoal grey and olive green. And since its purchase it has moved with me from location to location, always with the intention of knitting something special with it.

As you can see in the picture above I had already attempted to knit it, but I wasn't happy with how the various colours in the yarn were knitting up in pattern. I was getting the dreaded tiger stripe - to which I have a great aversion! 

I wanted to try try knitting something different which would only require a small amount of wool, like one or two skeins.  Having mastered knitting socks some years ago and looking for something different, I decided to try mittens. 

I found a fabulous pattern on Ravelry but to my dismay it was written in Russian. Thankfully I could follow the chart, but I had to improvise a little with the actual mitten pattern, and I made a note of the pattern in English here.

With the help of Espacetricot's blog post on how to knit a basic mitten I came up with the above result. 

I was very happy with the result of blending the multicoloured yarn with the creamy white. The combination of wools reminds me a little of antique floral patterns. They're perfect and I love them. And so easy and fun to knit! 

(and a good excuse to watch a movie or two. Whilst knitting them I watched the magical French movie City of Lost Children, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, who recently directed the beautiful movie, Amelie) 

Resin and Machine Embroidery

Heart houses 2.5 x 4 x 2.3 cm

I have been experimenting with machine embroidery, hand embroidery using reflective thread and embedding it into clear resin.

landscape embroidery embedded into a shape created from an antique hand saw

To create my own resin moulds I have been using a two part moulding paste (Pebeo silicon moulding paste) where you mix equal quantities of the blue and white paste for a minute until a uniform colour appears. It is quick to use and sets in about 5 minutes and is a little like working with oily Fimo (or polymer clay).

two part moulding paste house moulds

And I have worked with 2 different brands of resin: Pebeo Gedeo Crystal Resin and Castin' Craft Clear Polyester Casting Resin. Interestingly there was quite a bit of difference between the two. 

Pebeo Gedeo Crystal Resin took 24 hours to cure, was frosty where it came into contact with the mould and relatively smell free. I quite liked the 'softness' in the quality of the frostiness of the Pedeo Gedeo Crystal Resin, it is reminiscent of the sea washed glass you find on the beach. 

Castin' Craft Clear Polyester Casting Resin cured to the touch in less than 24 hours, was crystal clear even when it came into contact with the mould and was incredibly smelly. This one definitely needed to be used in a well ventilated space!  

House embroidery
embedded into the shape created from an antique hand saw

Whilst working with resin I discovered that you can:

• sand it with sand paper (this gives you a frosty look) and also helps even out any unwanted lumps and bumps
• paint it clear varnish (I used nail polish) which turns the sanded areas clear again 
• speed up the curing time by placing it in a warm oven (preheated to 80 degrees C for 15 minutes) this process also encourages any bubbles to come to the surface and disappear

The following sites were useful references

www.furnityurmolds.blogspot.ca

casting embedments in clear resin 

casting resin using a 2 part mould